The Post-Memorial Day Assessment of the United States Military

President Obama spoke earlier today at the West Point Commencement. He purportedly laid out his foreign policy. I have no idea what he said because what matters is what his Administration is doing. I have no idea what he said because after 5½ years in office a President who has to explain his foreign policy has no foreign policy. A strong foreign policy depends upon a strong military. A strong foreign policy depends upon a military, which can project force, and a President willing to project force. We have neither. Don't judge the President by his words, but by his acts. President Obama has been carrying out one of the most important goals of America’s left – the decline of America’s military. They believe that America’s military has been used to secure oil and other natural resources (“Bush invaded Iraq for oil”), to prop up petty dictators, and to enslave third world nations. Sadly, the Congressional Republicans played into President Obama’s hands through the sequestration, half of which would be Pentagon cuts. The United States projects power through the Navy’s aircraft carriers. The Navy is now down to 10 active carriers, several of which are always being refitted at base in the United States. The Navy now has fewer ships than any time since pre-World War I. China is now asserting control over the South China Sea, and pushing Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam around. The Russian Bear has emerged from hibernation. The Mideast is a tinderbox of Islamic militants fueled by Iran. Regardless of what happened in Benghazi on 9/11, 2012 the military claimed it had no assets available to come to the rescue of the besieged Americans. The Pentagon is asserting that neither the Army, the Navy, the Marines, nor the Air Force were able to come to the assistance of American diplomats under military attack. The once powerful Mediterranean Sixth Fleet had no vessel, which could have come to the assistance of the Americans. No ship, no plane, no helicopter was available! That is the true tragedy of Benghazi. Secretary of Defense Hagel said the Army will downsize to 440,00 – 450,000, it’s smallest size since 1940. The Pentagon, which never liked the A10 Warthog, wants to scrap the plane eventhough it is the best ground support plane in the world. No other plane comes close to its effectiveness and durability. The ugly plane can fly low and slow unlike the jet fighters. Remember the devastation the improvised explosive devices early brought to American and allied soldiers? The Pentagon came up with MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles to protect the troops at roughly $500,000 each. The Pentagon plans to scrap about 20% of its equipment ($7 billion) in Afghanistan, including thousands of MRAPs. It claims it would be too difficult and expensive to bring the equipment back to the States. The President announced in 2013 that he ensure the security of America and its allies by reducing the strategic nuclear weapon by a third below the level set in the START Treaty. 50 ICBM's were recently removed from their North Dakota silos and placed in storage. The Air Force will see its force of strategic bombers reduced to 60 from 93. The Navy’s nuclear subs will carry 54 fewer nuclear bombs. Many of the existing nuclear weapons are degrading, but the President is not spending funds to maintain or upgrade them. The United States can still claim the strongest military in the world, but the President lacks the will to project or sustain it.